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Cho'Gath
Build Guide by Khazem

This build has been archived and is for historical display only.

PLEASE NOTE: This build has been archived by the author. They are no longer supporting nor updating this build and it may have become outdated. As such, voting and commenting have been disabled and it no longer appears in regular search results.

Introduction

Update - 20.05.2012: Haven't updated this guide in a while because I kind of felt the whole idea fell off quite hard. With the addition of all the new strong bruisers it's just become very hard for a tank like Cho'Gath to match their presence in a teamfight. What it comes down to is that using the old build order, you just don't really do damage untill late late game, at which point it's usually too late. After playing around with it a bit and testing various different builds, this is what I've come up with.
The idea behind this new build order is to give him a better presence past his laning phase and actually make him do damage. Instead of straight up building like a tank, we use the health gained from his Feast stacks as our survivability and instead go for an offensive build right from the start. The items synergize well with eachother and will ensure that people will not be able to ignore you.

Welcome to my Cho'Gath guide! In this guide, I will show you how to build Cho'Gath as a bruiser, to be very tanky and very disruptive at the same time, able to stick to his targets and still do a lot of damage.

Cho'Gath has been my main pretty much since I started this game. He's an extremely versatile champion and can handle pretty much any role in the team. The role I will be going over here will focus on his tankiness and his ability to not only get into the enemies face, but also stay there.

While a tanky AP build would in theory make more sense cause of his AP scaling, its damage relies on hitting Rupture and it's pretty burst based, whereas this build will focus on attack speed and making Vorpal Spikes hurt with a couple of on-hit effects.
This also works especially well when jungling as it not only makes your cleartimes faster, it makes your ganks with red buff a lot scarier and again, less reliant on hitting your Rupture.

So after this brief introduction of what I will be explaining in the guide, let's go over the Pro's and Con's of 'Bruiser'Gath'.

Pros / Cons

spaaaace

Pros

+ Very tanky+ Can be very disruptive+ Has a lot of CC+ Huge true damage that can also serve as an extra smite+ Ability to protect the small helpless carries with his massive size+ Has the best skin in the game

space

Cons

- Hard to land skillshot- His size can sometimes make it a bit hard to manouver- Has a rather annoying voice- Dying is a pretty big setback

Runes

Runes

Greater Mark of Attack Speed9

Greater Seal of Armor9

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist9

Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed3

This is the runepage I use for Cho'gath. Both for laning and jungling.

Greater Seal of Armor: With the removal of Nimbleness and dodge masteries, these are definitely the best runes for Cho'Gath for both laning and jungling. These help make you more beefy in the early game.

Masteries

Masteries

1/5

3/1

4/1

3/5

2/5

1/1

3/5

3/1

1/

1/5

3/5

4/1

1/1

With the new defense mastery tree being so awesome, I put 21 points in there to make myself as tanky as possible, making it even more viable for Cho'Gath to build slightly less tank items and more attack speed/AD items. The remaining 9 points I will usually put in utility for the extra movement speed, but going for Arcane Knowledge in offense is also completely viable.

Skills

Passive: Carnivore

Cho'Gath's passive. Makes him incredibly sustained in lane and a very very strong solo top laner. Whenever you're low, just kill a creep wave to get your health right back up.

Rupture

Ruptures the ground at target location. After a short delay, enemies are launched into the air for 1 second, dealt 80 / 135 / 190 / 245 / 305 (+100% of ability power) magic damage, and have their movement speed slowed by 60% for 3 seconds.

Cooldown 10 seconds

Cost 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 / 120 mana

Range 950

Amazing CC ability but pretty hard to land. If you catch the right targets with this ability, this can act as a great tool of initiation. Also very useful for getting away from ganks. Simply place a Rupture underneath you while running and you will likely hit the enemies chasing you. This ability does take some practice before you can reliably hit it but when you do, it's very rewarding.

Cho'Gaths main form of harass and quick burst. In the lane, use this to harass your opponent down and in fights, try and hit as many enemies with it as possible. When maxed, the silence lasts forever and is very very annoying.

NOMNOMNOMNOMNOM. Amazing ability that deals a huge amount of TRUE damage. This damage can NOT be mitigated by any stat so it will always deal a ton of damage. Can be used to either finish someone off, scare the living **** out of a squishy, eat that pesky Alistar, or secure buffs as it is the biggest 'smite' in the game. When you have a good Cho'Gath on your team, your Baron buffs will never get stolen.

Skill Sequence

I never really have a set skill sequence on Cho'Gath. Using this build, the skill sequence is very situational. Feast should always be maxed first, that's pretty much always going to be the same.
When laning, if you want a quick and bursty harass, go for Feral Scream. If you want to be able to trade with your opponent by using auto attacks, Vorpal Spikes is the better choice to max first. I always max Rupture last as the knock up doesn't get stronger with levels and it's just too unreliable of a damage source to be worth maxing before anything else.

Items

Starting items

Boots of Speed: Pretty neutral start. Good for going middle or generally be faster when you need to (for example when you're expecting a level 2 gank these will help a lot.) Also gives you some more sustain as these are paired with 3x Health Potion at level 1.

Cloth Armor: If you need more armor in the early game. Cho'Gath does need this against strong early game champions. Comes with 5x Health Potion.

Regrowth Pendant: If you feel you're going to need the early game sustainability from a philosopher's stone, you can start with a Regrowth Pendant. It will make you almost impossible to harass out of lane.

Endgame goals

Frozen Heart: An item that I feel is especially good on Cho'Gath as it doesn't give any health, but gives you a huge amount of armor instead, with a very good passive effect and some cooldown reduction. Since Cho'Gath doesn't really need any health because of Feast, this is a great item to make you more beefy.

Force of Nature: By far the best source of magic resistance for Cho'Gath. Because of his big health pool, the passive on Force of Nature is pretty good and the movement speed is extremely useful for better initiation/positioning.

The Black Cleaver: An item I've been looking at recently. Never been a fan of this item but looking at it, it helps out other AD damage on your team and gives you a nice amount of extra attack speed and damage.

Guardian Angel: If a game calls for more tankiness, rather than the damage from Atma's Impaler, this is a good item to get.

Doran's Blade: Probably the item that's questioned the most in this build. Gives you some early game health, lifesteal and damage to go with your attack speed/high base AD. Basically makes you much stronger in early lane trades.

Randuin's Omen: Very strong item with a great on-use effect that fits perfectly on a tank like Cho'Gath.

Trinity Force: Get this as your very last item if you have the time. While this item might look a bit weird for Cho'Gath, all the stats on it are very useful when using this build. The attack speed will scale well with Vorpal Spikes and Wit's End, the on-hit slow will help you stick to your targets and the Sheen is mostly there for that tad bit of AP and while the proc isn't great for Cho'Gath, it's still there and it's still somewhat useful.

Jungling build

Will generally aim for any of the above end builds. Will explain the item sequence in the jungle section of this guide.

Alternative offensive items

Frozen Mallet: Helps you stick to your target and gives you another very nice health boost to an already very high health pool.

Malady: More attack speed and an on-hit magic resist shred. Might be a little overkill in terms of attack speed with a Wit's End and attack speed runes.

Madred's Bloodrazor: Helps you shred high health targets.

Wriggle's Lantern: Good for jungling, but not really needed as Cho'Gath already has 2 smites.

Rabadon's Deathcap: If you really want more AP, this would be the item to get it with. Makes your burst much more deadly.

Abyssal Scepter: Another good item for an AP build. The aura is useful for your entire team as you'll be applying it to the entire enemy team, having to be in melee range to do damage and all.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter:AP item that makes you very annoying and hard to get away from. The health boost is always a useful extra.

Alternative defensive items

Aegis of the Legion: Good cost effective tank item. You can get this if your support isn't going to.

Sunfire Cape: Decent item, but in my opinion just a weaker version of Randuin's Omen, especially for Cho'Gath.

Shurelya's ReverieShurelya's Reverie: Gives you health, CDR and helps you initiate or get away. Decent upgrade from a philosopher's stone.

Warmog's Armor: Good if you like the idea of never dying. Added to your already huge healthpool, this makes you very very big.

Boots

Mercury's Treads: Usuaully your boots of choice. Tenacity is just too good of a stat to ignore.

Berserker's Greaves: Yes, these are actually viable to synergize with all your attack speed, though I'd only ever get these when jungling.

Ninja Tabi: Against AD heavy teams. Get these when you need more protection from auto attackers.

Sorcerer's Shoes: More magic penetration for some more damage overall. You can get these if you don't need any tenacity or if you're going for a more AP centered build.

Gameplay - Laning

When you enter the game, make sure you know who you're laning against. Cho'Gath can go both solo top or middle so make sure you know where you're going and who you're facing. Buy the starting item of choice for the matchup and go to your lane.
Usually, you'll put your first point in Rupture, in case of a level 1 fight or just to protect yourself in lane if needed. If you don't need either of those, you can put a point in Vorpal Spikes first to make last hitting easier and give you the ability to be very aggressive from the start. Be careful not to push your lane too hard. When harassing with Feral Scream try and position yourself so you won't hit any minions in order to keep the lane in place.

Try and harass your opponent with melee hits whenever they get in range for a last hit, and if they run away, try and land a Feral Scream for some more harass. When they get low enough (around 500-600 health), try to land a Rupture. If you land it, follow up with a Feral Scream to make sure they can't flash away or use a defensive ability, and finish up with a Feast + Ignite combo (if you took ignite). If they're still not dead, you can finish them off with a couple of melee hits as they'll likely still be slowed from your Rupture.
Don't be afraid to use flash to get 1 or 2 more melee hits in to get that kill.

Tier 2 - 4 points in Swiftness because movement speed is awesome on Cho'Gath to help you land Rupture on targets that are running away and get through the jungle faster.

Tier 3 - Runic Affinity to make all your buffs last longer as they are both very strong on Cho'Gath.

Skill Sequence

Ability Sequence

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

I max Vorpal Spikes first for faster jungling and more damage as I usually rush for a Wit's End when jungling. I max Feral Scream second for more reliable burst. I grab my first point in Rupture whenever I want to gank a lane and max it last. Points in Feast whenever possible.

Jungling route

1. Start at wolves. If possible, have someone deal some damage to them but NOT pull them. Also make sure that whoever is helping you knows to get out of experience range.

2. Take the blue golem, preferably with a leash to keep you as high on health as possible.

You can choose to gank here, depending on what side you're on aim to gank either top or bottom (whichever lane is closer).

3. Kill the wraiths

4. If you ganked between point 2 and 3, you can kill the red lizard here if your smite is ready, if not, kill the double golems.

5. Clear the remaining camp (red lizard or double golems)

You should still have plenty of health at this point to pull off another gank in either mid lane or the closest of top and bottom. Go back to base afterwards, buy Boots of Speed and start clearing the jungle again starting with wolves.

Video showing this jungle route:

Items

After the first clear, I buy philosopher's stone and depending on if I got a kill or not, Boots of Speed as well. I usually also buy a ward or 2 on my first trip back for dragon control and possible counter jungling.

If you're able to farm well, aim for a Recurve Bow or even straight up Wit's End next. If you're having trouble or are getting heavily counter jungled, go ahead and buy a Heart of Gold.

For possible endgame builds, check the Items section above as all my late game builds are mentioned there.

Gameplay - Teamfights

Cho'Gath plays a couple of very important roles in teamfights. He will usually be the initiator, the main tank and the one to zone out the enemy carries.

When initiating a fight, you always need to aim to get a Rupture on a key target. When you do, follow up with a Feral Scream on as many targets as possible, while making sure you always hit the Ruptured target so they can't Flash away or use any other defensive skill.
The strength in this kind of initiation lies in the fact that you will have instantly taken someone out of the fight, and the chances of winning the fight are high.

However, when you get engaged on by the enemy, or one of your teammembers gets caught, you need to get in there. As Cho'Gath, you priority is to get into their face and zone the biggest threats out of the fight.
Once you've put yourself in the right position, aim to burst down the enemy carry or at least put heavy pressure on them so they can't properly join the fight. Do this right and the enemy team will likely focus you in order to stop you from killing their carry and in turn, your team should be able to clean up.

Hint: Another good and slightly more reliable but risky way to initiate a teamfight is by Flashing into an important target, silencing them with Feral Scream and landing a Rupture. Silencing them first ensures you can land the Rupture without them using an ability or Flash to avoid it.

I will add videos showing both situations soon~

Lane Opponents (Solo Top)

In this section I will list a couple of common solo top laners and explain how to deal with them.

Difficulty:2/10

A rather easy match-up for Cho'Gath. Your early game damage will be higher as Akali relies on short bursts while you can do high sustained auto attack damage with Vorpal Spikes. Her shroud also doesn't protect herself from Rupture and Feral Scream so in the end, she won't be able to outsustain your harass, while you can outsustain hers. Build some early magic resistance to make the lane easier and completely dominate her. If done right, Akali should not be a problem at all.

This lane should be a farm off, with a slight advantage to Cho'Gath. Try avoiding his early game harass by moving around a lot and give the harassment right back to him with some Feral Screaming. Make sure not to miss any last hits to keep yourself sustained and you should not be able to die in this lane (unless you get ganked). Make sure not to hit him with Vorpal Spikes too much as he will sustain off of that damage.

This lane can be quite tough as Gangplank is probably stronger than you at level 1. Start with some armor to negate most of his early game aggression and you should be fine. If he attacks you, try and move to your caster minions and attack him back with your Vorpal Spikes. With the help of those caster minions, you should be able to win those trades and drive him back. You will also then be able to sustain yourself while he has to rely on health potions and regen to get his health back up. Once you get some armor, he shouldn't really be much of a threat anymore and you should be able to dominate this lane.

This guy can be quite a pain for Cho'Gath just because of Garen's early game strength. When facing a Garen, make sure you have a runepage ready with a lot of armor (armor seals AND quints at least). Starting with a Cloth Armor and maxing Vorpal Spikes first is your best bet. When he comes at you with his Q active, try and silence him so he can't follow up with a spin trade some damage back to him with your Vorpal Spikes. When he does get to spin on you, try to land a Rupture and get away. Play it safe and play it smart. If you play this right and get enough armor at level 1, you CAN actually win trades and you CAN overpower him if you DON'T MISS ANY LAST HITS. If you do decide to trade damage with him, getting all the last hits for maximum sustainability is very important or else he'll just outdamage and overpower you.

This lane is essentially a farm-off. At the start, you will be pretty even and the lane can go either way. Make sure you realize how much damage Irelia does with Hiten Style active and try and avoid it by landing ruptures whenever she comes at you with that shiny blade. When it wears off, you can start going aggressive and poking with Feral Scream and even auto attacks when she comes in for a last hit. Beware of her early game if she has Ignite as her damage will be deceptively high. At level 6, of both players play it right, neither should be able to kill each other and the lane becomes a farmfest. Build a fast Heart of Gold and use Feast on minions whenever it's up. The best counter to true damage is raw health.

A low sustained, low damage melee champion. Your favorite prey. Honestly, Jarvan IV should not cause you any problems at all as he simply doesn't have the damage output to deal with your sustainability. Any harass you might cause him he won't be able to give back as you will just kill a few creeps and you're fine. You can play this lane very aggressively with Feral Screams and Vorpal Spikes auto attacks, preventing him from last hitting as much as possible. Keep in mind you will be pushing the lane against this guy so keep your lane warded to prevent ganks. At level 6, just harass him down with Feral Scream and when he's low enough, land a Rupture, followed by a Feral Scream and Feast to finish him off. If you don't screw up too bad and don't get camped by the enemy jungler, you should always win this lane.

This lane can be quite tough for Cho'Gath. Jax has high burst damage and his hard to trade damage with because of his high dodge chance. Build early armor to reduce some of his damage and make sure to last hit as best as possible in order to keep yourself in the lane. At level 6, don't try and fight him straight up as he will win trades, rather keep away from him and harass him with Feral Scream. He doesn't have any real form of sustain besides his item build so you will eventually get him low enough for you to either combo him to death or make him back off. Always be careful when he stacks his ultimate's passive up as his damage output with max stacks is incredibly high, even on a Cho'Gath.

This lane's difficulty is entirely up to you. Cho'Gath is much stronger than Nasus early and mid game unless Nasus gets too much farm. Exploit his early weakness by keeping him away from his creeps as much as possible. Build early armor just in case as he can hit suprisingly hard with suprisingly low farm. Harass him as much as possible and at level 6, go for kills. Getting your jungler to dive him works wonders too, even if you're already winning the lane. If you can get ahead far enough, he won't be able to catch up to you in the laning phase and will be forced to stay in lane to farm for an extended period of time, giving you a chance to win the game before Nasus ever gets farmed enough to do anything about it.

Another very difficult lane. Olaf's high true damage will hurt you a lot and because of the low cooldown you won't be able to outsustain it. You ARE, however, stronger for the first few levels so exploit that as best you can by creating a small advantage and building some early raw health items, such as Heart of Gold and catalyst the protector. When he starts doing too much damage with his E, try and stay away from him while still farming as best as you can. When he runs up to you, Feral Scream him to prevent the incoming true damage bomb and Rupture him to get away if needed. Try and avoid his axes as he's likely to get an E off when he lands one of those slows. This lane will only get harder as the game progresses so it's important for you to do well in the early game and get your Feast stacks up as fast as possible. You will eventually get to a point where you have enough health to make his 300 damage nukes seem like mosquito bites and you should be able to stay in lane properly, however chances of ever getting a kill are rather low.

Beware of Renekton's early game damage as it's amongst the highest in the game. Like the Garen match-up, try and start with as much armor as possible. Renekton will be playing very aggressively in the early game and there's not much you can do about it. For as long as you have Health Potions, stay near melee range to last hit as much as you can and farm up to build early armor. Whenever he gets over 50 fury, he will try and Slice and Dice towards you to land a Ruthless Predator which will hit for A LOT, regardless of your armor. Make sure to be on your guard when he reaches that fury level and silence him as he slices towards you. This will allow you to create some distance before he can land his stun. As the game progresses, this lane will become much easier and when you get your Glacial Shroud, you should be able to stay in the lane and start being more aggressve. Eventually, you will outscale Renekton and you'll be able to dominate him completely, if your early game wasn't too awful.

Very annoying lane and pretty difficult as well. His sustained damage with flamethrower is annoyingly high and only gets worse as he levels up. If he plays aggressive early on, you won't be able to outsustain the damage and you'll struggle to get your farm. Build early magic resistance to counter his damage and use your silences wisely. Don't try and trade with him too much as he can turn around, slow the hell out of you and blow you up. Play this lane cautiously and only trade damage when you know you can afford to. There is no real turning point in this lane as while you build more MR to survive and outsustain his damage, he will build spell vamp to outsustain yours. Make sure not to die in this lane. When Rumble gets ahead, it's very hard to catch back up to him.

Another annoying as hell lane. Everytime you want to last hit, Ryze will just bash his head on his keyboard and take half your health in the process. Get as much magic resistance early on as possible and try and avoid taking too much free damage. You should be able to last hit fine with your abilities but don't push the lane too hard. Always make sure to make your silences count and don't waste too much mana trying to last hit. This lane is a struggle for survival untill you get tanky enough at which point Ryze's damage won't feel too high anymore. It's also very important not to die or fall behind too much in levels. If you fall behind too much, you likely won't be able to catch up again.

Another farm-off. You have the advantage early game so make sure to exploit that. If you get ahead at any point in this lane, he should never be able to kill you as his damage is simply too low to be a threat to you. Push the lane as hard as he pushes yours just so you don't miss any last hits to your turret. Don't try and go for kills as you likely won't get them anyway, especially after he hits 6.

A very easy lane for Cho'Gath, especially if you start with some armor. Talon's damage will never be a real threat to you as long as you have some armor as it comes in bursts and you'll be able to sustain yourself in between those bursts. Talon also doesn't have any real sustain so whenever he comes at you, you can just trade the damage right back and he'll be forced to back off. As you get ahead, he won't even be able to lane properly besides standing back and spamming his Rake to try and last hit.

One of the hardest lanes for Cho'Gath because of Udyr's very high auto attack damage with Tiger Stance early on. You can't trade with him because his damage is much higher than yours, he has a very strong low cooldown shield and high sustain himself. You can't really build against his damage either as it's both physical and magic damage and it will take you a while to get enough of both resistances to whitstand his damage. Your best bet is to farm up as much as possible, avoiding his stuns as best as possible with well timed silences and ruptures and get as tanky as possible early on.

Tough lane. Warwick's sustain is disgustingly high. So much so that you trying to harass him won't have any effect at all, while he can just AFK auto attack and Q spam you whenever you get close. Luckily, his damage isn't great either but this can become hard to deal with later on as his Hungering Strike deals quite a lot of damage to you and he can afford to annoy you whenever you want to get last hits. Build some early armor with a fast Frozen Heart and sustain with philosopher's stone/ catalyst the protector and just farm up as much as you can. Don't ever try and harass him as it's just wasted effort.

A slightly easier version of the Warwick lane. Yorick's damage is a bit higher than Warwick but his sustain is much lower. The early levels can be quite rough as Yorick's damage will be quite high, but as long as you don't miss too much last hits and keep a good supply of health potions, you should be fine. Once you get a bit tankier, his damage won't be as scary anymore and you'll slowly start becoming stronger. When you know you have enough health potions to sustain yourself, just get in his face and make him burn his mana. Push the lane as much as possible to make him miss some last hits at his tower. You likely won't be able to kill him, so focus on outfarming him.

Tips and Tricks

Feast is the biggest 'smite' in the game. Use it to secure buffs and map objectives or even steal them.

When being chased, you can use Rupture on yourself as you're running to hit the people chasing you. This will allow you to get away from ganks safely.

When hitting a tower when an enemy is near, make sure to toggle off Vorpal Spikes to avoid getting tower agro.

You can use your massive size to protect your weaker, small and squishy carries against auto attackers.

Closing Comments, Game Stats and Credits

So that's it for this guide. Thank you all for taking the time to read it and I hope it has proven helpful to at least someone. I'm always looking to improve my guides so any comments/feedback would be greatly appreciated, I will also always reply to your comments/questions.

To end off, I'll post some of my game scores using this build. I only have these 2 for now but I'll see if I can get some more Cho games going in the near future.

NicknameMy's score using this guide

Credits:
- Credits to jhoijhoi for her awesome templates, which I used for most of my guide
- Thanks to Wayne3100 for the massive wall of text of feedback
- Thanks to PsiGuard for all the feedback and support for this guide